Charlottetown food bank seeing demand surge ahead of Thanksgiving
CBC
The Upper Room Hospitality Ministry is experiencing an increase in demand heading into Thanksgiving weekend.
The Charlottetown food bank and soup kitchen operator says it's been serving a lot more people than usual in recent weeks.
"Certainly September was quite busy for us and October has really started off with a bang," executive director Mike MacDonald said.
"We're expecting more and more people in both the food bank and soup kitchen and, you know, certainly hoping that we can help them as much as possible with their holiday dinners."
MacDonald said they've served 588 families last month when typically they serve around 540. The soup kitchen served around 3,700 meals in September.
He said he expects to give out more fresh produce than usual, as more people donate to the food bank ahead of the holiday.
"Unfortunately, we don't have turkeys. But we will have chicken," MacDonald said.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.